1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hardness tester and a program.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a Vickers hardness tester is known in which hardness of a test specimen is evaluated based on an indentation formed by pressing an indenter loaded with a predetermined load against a surface of the test specimen. As such a Vickers hardness tester, a device has been developed which automatically performs positioning of a test specimen and automatically scans a Vickers indentation. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H07-181120 proposes an automatic Vickers hardness scanning device that automatically measures Vickers hardness by generating, from an obtained image of an indentation, an indentation image from which influence due to scratches and dirt has been removed, and by calculating a surface area of the indentation. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-326169 proposes a device that is capable of securing a test area based on obtained surface image data of a test specimen. In other words, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-326169 proposes a hardness tester capable of automatically selecting a region appropriate for a hardness test to perform a hardness test. The hardness testers in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication Nos. H07-181120 and 2005-326169 employ technologies that enable prevention of scanning errors due to dirt and dusts on a surface of a test specimen and/or the shape of the test specimen. Even when these technologies are employed, however, a scanning error may occur for an indentation having an irregular surface pattern or being formed over a plurality of textures, for example. In such a case, an operation is performed to recover error data in which a scanning error has occurred.
In general, there are many occasions in which an operator is working on another operation while performing multi-point measurement with a hardness tester. Thus, it is likely that the operator is not observing statuses of all the tests. Therefore, the operator recognizes error data when reviewing a test result after completing all the measurement, and then performs an operation to recover the error data. Specifically, in a recovery operation with a device that successively tests a plurality of test specimens having the same shape, for example, an operator specifies a test specimen and an indentation at issue from the plurality of tested test specimens. Then, the operator carries out measurement again based on an observation on the indentation, or start over a process from formation of an indentation. As described above, conventional recovery operations require a great amount of work such as visually identifying an indentation in which an error has occurred, observing an indentation again to perform re-measurement, or starting over a process from formation of an indentation.